Marco Rubio is asking for campaign donations based on his signing of a letter to Iran's leaders
designed to interfere with Obama administration's negotiations with them over their nuclear program.
Two of the 47 Republican senators who
signed a letter warning Iran's leaders that any deal over its nuclear program would be subject to reversal after President Obama leaves office have made fund-raising appeals based on their stance on the matter. After a fiery Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday in which Secretary of State John Kerry was questioned about Iran, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is likely to declare in April that he will run for president in 2016, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has long been in the bomb Iran faction of Congress, made their appeals. Ed O'Keefe and Mike DeBonis
report:
“Marco was proud to be one of the first senators to sign the letter,” said a message written by a Rubio adviser that included a link to a donation page.
Graham told supporters, “We cannot trust Iran for one minute when they claim they simply want a peaceful nuclear power program.” He added that if his supporters agreed, “I hope you will stand with me today by making an immediate financial contribution.”
Although the
New York Daily News labeled the 47 senators "traitors" for sending the letter, and a White House spokesman
called their move "reckless, irresponsible and misguided," only Sen. John McCain has retreated ever so slightly. He
indicated that perhaps it would have been a good idea to devote more time to thinking about whether sending such a letter was a good idea instead of quickly signing it while the senators' attention was focused on getting out of Washington before a snowstorm hit.
McCain has in the past made clear he's all for bombing Iran. Graham noted 18 months ago in an interview with Mike Huckabee something he has repeated in various ways ever since:
"I believe the Iranians are trying to develop a nuclear weapon and not build a nuclear power plant. [...] I'm going to get a bipartisan coalition together. We're going to put together a use of force resolution, allowing our country to use military force as a last resort to stop the Iranian nuclear program [... ]
Graham first proposes to preemptively grant the president congressional authority to start a war against Iran. Now he's trying to undermine the White House's multilateral negotiations of a deal with Iran to keep it from developing nuclear weapons. Quite the switcheroo.
But, assuming that the United States, the four other permanent members of the Security Council and Germany manage to come to agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, it's obvious any deal that doesn't require Tehran to capitulate to the most intrusive curtailment of its program will be an issue in next year's presidential elections. As has been the case since 1949, the claim will be that Democrats are weak on defense. It's an old and tired and bogus claim that has sometimes in the past been linked to accusations that Democrats are traitors. But it's been known to achieve its ends—electing more Republicans or persuading Democrats to adopt more hawkish stances.